The Truth About Cesc Fabregas and FC Barcelona

Posted by guest writer Deepak Israni*

The Greatest Club In the World? Apparently its FC Barcelona. Like butter wouldn’t melt, the club from Catalonia have everyone from Sepp Blatter to Alex Hleb verbally masturbating – and perhaps otherwise – over them. They are the saviours of football – a club who won’t let any corporation adorn their shirts. They play exciting football – apparently a new brand of team attack and defence (which Sacchi’s AC Milan team of the early 90s did to far better effect). Such is their standing in the world that they can get away with all but tapping up Cesc Fabregas for the past few seasons without even so much as a call to Mr.Hill-Wood – or so he tells us.

Well I say £^&* Barcelona and so too does today’s guest writer Deepak Israni. Deepak is a Madrista at heart but is an ardent admirer and supporter of the mighty Arsenal. Below he outlines why Barcelona really need to just come down a peg or two…….. or ten!

This is the story every year, and now with the Catalans having their presidential election in the summer which sees Joan Laporta doing whatever he can in his power (which includes signing David Villa) to tip the scales in favour of his backed candidate so that he can move onto national politics and STILL have a say in what FC Barcelona does, it was obvious that such rumors would only escalate in number.

The worst part about all this is that Cesc hasn’t done a single thing to calm the rumors, instead he is signing a little kid’s Barcelona jersey, adding fuel to all the rumors.

If Cesc does indeed sign for FC Barcelona, then Cesc is the biggest most ungrateful b1tch on the planet! And if you think that I’m being harsh on the Captain, then tell me, if bailing out on the club that gave him all the opportunities that he could only dream of at his childhood club, and made him the player that he is today in pursuit of more money and trophies isn’t acting like an ungrateful b1tch, then what is?

Cesc Fabregas despite being an Arsenal academy product……oh wait…….are you guys still living in a world run by FC Barcelona and believe that he is a Barcelona product?

Let me clarify. Barcelona themselves claim that Carles Puyol is their academy product, but in fact he was SIGNED at the age of 19, Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal at the age of 15, if that doesn’t make him a product of Arsenal’s academy then what does? More can be learned from a team at the age of 15 than 19.

There are many reasons why I believe that Cesc Fabregas shouldn’t leave which include FC Barcelona being a dirty hypocritical institution unlike the popular image of them, created by them and their controlled media. But that might not apply to Cesc, because he’s a Cule by birth and he may already have made up his mind to return home. But I won’t let that stop me from pointing out what FC Barcelona are all about!

The first and foremost reason that I believe Cesc shouldn’t leave is the lack of opportunities. He joined Arsenal for the same reason, and him leaving to be a bench player for Barcelona when he is already the captain of one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, is odd.

There is no way he will get a starting place in the Barcelona midfield. The Blaugaranas play Xavi Hernandez in Fabregas’s position, there are rumors about them selling Xavi Hernandez but it seems highly unlikely. Then the second position is of Seydou Keita, ain’t no way in hell Barcelona will remove their insurance policy in the middle, Cesc is just not big enough. The only one he can replace is Sergi Busqets who is a good enough ball winner, and has the Plan-B of winning the ball back—which is, that he’ll go down like a sissy whenever he loses the ball so that the play of the opposing team is broken down and Barcelona get the ball back. They like to play two DMs, they want all the protection in midfield they can get, Cesc isn’t cutting into that team.

The second reason is that Barcelona play like sissies though they might advertise that they play the most beautiful football in the world and that Arsenal try to copy their style of football. Those who have watched Barcelona play know that they roll the ball around between their back-line and sometimes the midfield and then take it back to their defense again, who would chuck one up for Messi or Ibrahimovic, hardly beautiful.

Their play is a different version of negative football which includes ball-hogging doing nothing with the ball so that the opposing team can’t do anything. Why leave a team which plays beautiful attacking football where you are an integral part of the system for a crappy ass team where you’d be stacking in a high number of passes and would be looked at in awe on Sportscenter, but in reality you’d be passing to the defenders!

And now the last, but not the least, and probably the most important reason why Cesc shouldn’t leave is that Cesc probably wouldn’t have the same satisfaction in winning a trophy where the success is bought. The Blaugaranas might claim that it’s only their rivals—Real Madrid who do all the spending – but we all know it’s all false.

Their sheet is as splattered with big money transfers in the recent years as Real Madrid’s. Dani Alves, Arsenal’s own—Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (second highest money transfer—€85 million = Eto o’ + €45 million), Dymtro Chyngrinsky (who’s apparently a waste of €27 million, a bench player), Eric Abidal (similar amount to Arsenal’s biggest signing—Andrei Arshavin), Gabriel Millito (€22 million, for a player who remained injured for the major part of two seasons, and this was his third season at the club), Seydou Keita and now the first signing of the summer—David Villa (€45 million).

The expenditure (money spent in purchasing players – money recouped by selling players) of FC Barcelona in three years is more than Real Madrid, yet they proudly say that they don’t spend money and “make” their players. It’s nobody’s fault but their own that they sign expensive players that they don’t really play and make it look like they use their own academy.

Arsenal are pretty close to a title now, actually they always are, last season showed how the Gunners have matured but the injuries to key players are a major problem, the new training regime might lessen that. With Arsene Wenger finally diving into the transfer market to sign replacements, this might be the year of the Gunners, which partly depends on whether Cesc stays or goes, if he stays good, if he leaves, then it depends on who is going to be his replacement.

It’s all up to Cesc, he can choose to be Captain of Arsenal or he can leave to sit on the bench of FC Barcelona, but need we remind him of a certain Alexander Hleb, who is still picking the thorns out of his ass!

Cesc can choose to do whatever he wants, Arsenal will be happy either way, they’ll be happier to see him stay but won’t be disappointed to bag whatever is remaining of the €60-70 million after buying his replacement.

* All at Arsenal, Arsenal would like to thank Deepak for taking time out to write up this post. If you liked what you read you can find more at his own blog on Real Madrid called “Football Through the Eyes of Real Addicts”

298 Responses to The Truth About Cesc Fabregas and FC Barcelona

Hey I Iike that, the only thing is perhaps he shouldn’t have used his real name as there a quite a few nutjobs on the web who may blogstalk him as we all know how fanatical Barca fans are.
Great article, one I could have written myself, although with a bit less restraint, if I wasn’t so lazy, with many points I could see myself and some that are new examples of hypocrisy from Barca. As I said the other day, the whole Unicef/donations thing smacks of Smashie & Nicey (from Harry Enfield) i.e. “do a lot of great work for charity, but don’t like to talk about it” although go on about it endlessly anyway.
Bravo !

Really(about the criminal google) ? My real life name is quite common so I could probably use that too, but I’ve been stuck with charybdis1966 for about 4 years now so can’t be arsed to change it.
BTW – does no one know who Smashy & Nicey are ?

I’ll see – the current state of my bank account seems to be telling me I won’t be able to afford Arsenal matches any time soon but I MIGHT go to the Emirates Cup for a day – we’ll see how it goes. That’s on in August isn’t it?

My real life name is too common in Ireland which is why I use my second name on all official documentation which has in turn lead to a bit of a kerfuffle if I forget to put it on somethings because some think its double barreled….

The Emirates Cup is on the Weekend of Sat 31 July and Sun 1 August, I doubt I’ll go to that, although I might go to the Barnet friendly two weeks previous to that as I had such a good time there with Peachy last year.
Smashy & Nicey were two middle aged DJ’s(in the Dave Lee Travis, Mike Freeman mould) who would play middle of the road rock on their Radio 2 type station and they would always mention how much work they did for “charidee”, although they didn’t want to talk about it. I thought they were hilarious.

Dude…..i wonder where were you when Arsene tapped fabregas at d age of 16??? Why dint you write a little abt that too??? stop fooling yourself, you guys have not won anything for ages now. Fabregas is a Barca product and he wants to come back to where he belongs, so be it. Stop whining and face it.

impressive,l swear Cesc’s career will take a deep descent should he leave.there’s no competition in that Espania league.yes he was born in Barcelona but Arsenal made him.so l plead him to stay and not destroy the bright future he has at Arsenal

Why oh why don’t UEFA and FIFA do something about Barcas blatant tapping up. OK they do it through statements apparently made by current Barca players, but we all know who are really behind these comments. Only Platini and Blatter are stupid enough to fall for it.
I’m taking bets on who will be the first Barca player to say Ebouse will be stupid not to join them!!!!!

Barca4life – But didn’t Barca put Messi’s career before Fabregas’? As a local boy Cesc must be a bit peeved still about that – I know they play two different positions but the youth academy was all about Messi – and it has worked out but Cesc owes Barca nothing and Arsenal a lot.

Niall – I’ll go check the last 25 years and see how Madrid’s and Barca’s trophy counts weigh up and get back to you.

Hopefully Cesc will soon realise that he is just a pawn in the Barca presidential race. They had no intention of trying to sign him this year, they knew he was not gettable, but a few misleading quotes in the Spanish press forced the presidential candidiates to posture.

They set no money aside this year for Fabregas, but must now make a (ridiculous) bid to save face.

Right, lets clear up this nonsense about the, oh so philanthropic Barcelona paying UNISEF to use their name on the front of their shirts.

Use your memories, when shirt sponsorship first came out it was viewed as being very tacky, Arsenal were one of the last to adopt it here.

In Spain, Real Madrid were in deep debt and adopted it quickly; as a reaction, the outspoken President of Barcelona at the time made this grand statement about how the club would never defile the shirt of Barcelona by having sponsorship on the front which was repeated proudly by every Barcelona fan for a good two years……..then the penny dropped, everybody had adopted it and they realised just how much money they were loosing.

Since then they have had to come up with a way of back tracking, enter UNISEF and what do you think will happen when that arrangement runs out?

Geoff – that probably has a good deal of truth – every summer is the same come election time and there is a lot of playing to the Catalan gallery to garner votes. The unsettling of opposition players is seen as merely collateral damage in the war for votes.
Also, as the Barca glory hunters who’ve come on here have suggested that Arsenal are a shoddy, poor team then why do they always covet, and buy, our players?
Make your mind up, we have no good players or we do, you can’t have it both ways.

It’s typical Gooner style to take the moral high ground when wenger took Cesc using a loophole in the system to sign Cesc in the first place.
Get over it, Cesc has come to his senses and has decided he wants to play for a big club; All he has to do is look at the honours achieved by the people he played along side at the academy and stayed at Barca.
It’s great watching you all squirm again, this has become something to look forward to every summer watching your best players leaving your shit club.

Thanks “Notagoon” for your oh-so-thought provoking insightful and truly original comment.
I am dumbstruck by your Swiftian writing skills and hard hitting allegorical viewpoint that transcends this, counterpoints the other and leaves the readers here with a profound feeling of…….how the hell do I get my eyes to roll back forward ?

Open message to Notagoon and all supporters of other clubs ……. We welcome your comments on here, but at least have the self confidence to inform us of who you support so we can judge your views in context.

Rasp, I reckon you’re too kind, this is an Arsenal blog and other teams fans can’t be respectful they should go get lost. Of course it’s your blog sand it’s only my opinion, but I’ve moderated before and when someone comes on giving it the big one I love binning them…..the suckers !

The need to be respectful relates to everyone on here whichever club they support. It gets a bit boring if you pick everyone up every time they step out of line, but I’m hoping the regulars (all of whom are part of the site) will step in if anything gets out of order.

OMG keeping the ball and passing it around is negative play…OH damn dude…u knw even if i was not a barca supporters shit dude i think u gotta just get ur head straight…i stopped reading till tht line and finally came to the conclusion u are totally insane…

btw if we can afford him please don say we simply spill the cash…we can and we will do it…no doubt on tht…sorry but i cant understand why ur “club” cant/doesnt wanna spend…tht phrase “In arsene we trust” has actually been imprinted in all of u guys tht now its just hard to take tht slap in the face tht u actually trusted him…..7 long yrs have passed my friend with his promise…like the way u guys dogged out at benitez for promising a top 4 finish…7 long fkn yrs…we may play a “negative” football…but arent we the ones who showed u how its done…not once not twice but 3 times…do u actually have any shame to even talk abt ur club…you can claim to be a big european club…but please note tht when u actually stand up against the rest its like walcott standing near ibra… :) how we spend how we play and who we field week in week out shud be cesc’s problem…and yes if he wants to go i feel he shud…

at ur puyol point…he joined the academy at 17 and thts when he started playin soccer…and here is how it is….once a gunner always a gunner right….ask fab what he is :)

Oh no London/Raspers – I mean they are entitled to differing viewpoints but if they come on full of bile and insults to Arsenal I only think it fair that Arsenal supporters don’t have to suffer that on an Arsenal blog. Of course my viewpoint is different on this to yours, it reminds me of one of my youtube comment threads was being littered by a Port Vale fan effing and blinding about effin Arsenal, and paedo Wenger and the like, I binned those comments, although the idiot reposted them about 4 times.

The funniest part Chary will be watching them in the Europa League after they FAIL to get past the qualifying round :lol: they seem to think they are straight in although bless them how would they know the format of the competition :lol:

As mr charybdis1966 says: It’s summertime, and elections are die-hard populism in Barcelona. Sport and ElmundoDeportivo need to sell their respective bullshit on a daily basis. Hence a lot of crap is being written, candidates like most politicians make up bogus-story’s and try to get away with the tapping up of players etc,… . Cesc happens to be catalan and one the most gifted young players on this planet, as an ex-youth product he could possible make or brake an election for any candidate.

And thus it happens that FCBarcelona is tapping up an Arsenal player (as they have done in the past) but as they do with Fernando Torres, Villa and others. And like other clubs play their tricks (Arsenal taking Merida and Fabregas amongst others because Barça couldn’t offer them a pro-contract) It is part of today’s world of football transfers (unfortunately), just take the tapping up of mr Calderon as an example and the way in which C.Ronaldo left.

I don’t really believe that Barcelona only plays the ball backwards as sissies yet if you would like to believe so, feel free. It’s like believing Helenio Herrera played attacking football. It depends on how you want to see things, but I’ll believe many will disagree with the statement.

I believe Cesc could win a place in a Barça midfield, he’s not assured to do so and I hope he stays at Arsenal untill his contract runs out. But claiming he has no chance, makes me wonder how high you guys rate him?

Barcelona is and I agree a buying club like pretty much all football clubs, it has a good youth-academy and these days a phenomenal-group of young talents. But it has been different (thinking back of our Van Gaal-era when half of Ajax-was playing in Nou Camp)and it will be again. I believe most of the time we’re quite conscious in who we buy and what we pay but we’re definately not perfect (Hleb, Caceres,…). Cesc is as much a barca-product as he is an arsenal product, he was good otherwise AW wouldn’t take him, but he became a world-class player at the Emirates.

For shirtsponsorism, I’ll agree Unicef is a way to promote our club on a different way and it might turn out to be the stepping stone for commercial shirt-sponsering.

And yes its true that Laporta makes stupid quotes from time to time (but remember he’ll be running for elections in Catalan politics next year). Moreover, a lot of debate and criticism in the elections (at fcbarcelona) are about Laporta using the club as a political forum.

As a Barcelona fan I’ll say this Arsenal has a great team (fanbase), great players (otherwise we wouldn’t buy so many of them)and a sound economic policy. And for this I very much respect this club.
Furthermore Fabregas is a great player and I enjoy his game at Arsenal, but if he wants to come and the Arsenal-board accept an offer than it will be just another piece of business (be it high-profile and with a strange “bringing-home aspect” attached)

Arsene’s penchant for getting promising kids is legendary.I think the fact that the kids have been found inadequate shd be a damperner.A case in point is Walcott signed five years ago. He was touted as
possessing terrific pace ,blah,blah.
Injuries not withstanding,he has done nothing much to enhance his status.That is why I am very wary of these kids.There are many examples in the Arsenal squad.Suffice to say time to move on and get ready made players.

No Deepak u are the ungrateful b1tch. You and every other Arsenal supporter who doesn’t appreciate that cesc gave his all on the pitch for Arsenal surrounded by players who aren’t fit to wear the shirt. We have been 2 or 3 players short of a title for years. Maybe if the club had showed their ambition by buying a couple of players then he wouldn’t be off to a club who win their league and then spends 40 million euros on a new striker the week after.

Coz I find AKB’s to be patronising to non Wenger lovers, in their love of one man.

London
If it was The Board saying don’t spend, Le gaffer would have bolted to Real Spenders long ago. Unless you are privy to inside info, i.e actually part of the goings-on within the inner sanctum, you know as much as me. & don’t tell me you heard it from a friend who heard it from some one who mops the floors of the Boardroom khasis.

Thanks for that informed comment there Rudy, I’m glad to see a reasoned reaction to the post. My only fear is the behaviour of the presidential candidates is going to damage Barca’s reputation as a few years ago I had some sort of respect for them.
London, I said number of seasons “so far” – i.e. before the 2010-11 season, so am I right about 12 for us then?

If we were to presume for a moment that cesc will leave this summer or next, which would be the most beneficial to the club and to the team.
Yes there is no official bid at the moment as far as i understand, but nevertheless it could happen.

“My only fear is the behaviour of the presidential candidates is going to damage Barca’s reputation as a few years ago I had some sort of respect for them.”

amen to that (as a barca fan)
Barca should take a decent approach and leave our much-revered player at the Emirates. Or respectfully phone Gazidis asking him if they are interested in big bag of money for the lill’ spaniard? He will righteously say no thank you very much, maybe better luck next year! End of story but no newspaper sold.

If Cesc were to leave this season he’d have to go NOW so we could get in a replacement and with the World Cup coming up the prices would go up. Who then would be the replacement – Gourcouff? S.Ireland?

Then if he were to leave next season and Wenger knew about it now he’d have a year to find a replacement and during that time I’d have no doubt Cesc would give his all.

Of course, what happens if Cesc stays, we win the league and look like going on a good run of trophies and Barca win nothing??

The board are in charge of the transfer budget, this is surely the one fact we can agree on. I am not suggesting that I have inside information on the club and I do not understand why you say that I think I have.

You have been poisoned gg with all that anti Arsenal stuff that is spewed out day in and day out, come over to the bright side where we still love Arsenal and don’t feel the need to bitch about them all day long.

In the footballing eco-system, Arsenal are below Barca in the food chain

this wasnt the case in the early noughties…. we have digressed since 2004 and we would keep losing our ‘cheap’ foreign talent to other clubs if we dont start acting like a club with revenue streams that match Barcelona’s

We’ve taken several young talent from helpless clubs we idnt have a problem with that.

If Cesc leaves he would leave for a handsome fee I dont know whay we are killing ourselves about it.

You are saying poppy cock. If I was anti Arsenel I wouldn’t be bothering to blog mate, I’d be following the footy. Your people dared to question your lame Government & gave them the flick.It doesn’t mean they are anti British. Just because people dare to question a few things about the way The Arsenal is run, doesn’t mean they are anti Arsenal.

” We’ve taken several young talent from helpless clubs we idnt have a problem with that.” – We have always paid fairly for them though haven’t we Franchise? As far as I know we paid more for Sunu (I think) than we had to so his club in France could build a new training ground.

when ppl mention net spend in the future they should be aware that we have achieved a low one in the last few years because of our policy of signing young players that couldnt legally sign contract at their training clubs

Franchise – they are the rules though of the various FA’s – nothing illegal in it is there? If we did I’d have a problem but if we play by the rules and pay what is due to the respective club then until the rules are changed that’s the way it is. (I shall twist this in favour of Arsenal all day long ;) )

Chary – Ever notice how Eboue ALWAYS try to lift whoever scores up in his arms – its a bit weird.

Well I’ve been asking other barca-ppl the same question (concerning our debt). First of all, I believe we have debt and not a lill’ bit. We have no short-term, high interest bank debt that is what our board told us last time they bothered to look at the accounts. But one of the electoral candidates (S.Rosell) said we had about 420 million pound of debt and so we shouldn’t buy cesc (but Torres he mumbled).

While there is no clearcut answer, the latest things I’ve heard we have liabilities (debt and others) and depending on how to look at them they are between 200-almost 500 million Euros. In short a lot of money and imo time to be a little bit more concerned about the economical side of it (on the other hand our turnover is about 400 million so debt ratio is not extraordinarily bad). There is actually a university professor going for barca-presidency who argues that we should live within our means (like Arsenal). Too bad he doesn’t stand a chance because he doesn’t make promises to buy half Arsenal or to bring Ian Wright out of retirement.

Anyone who chooses your name has been around the block at least once, you have seen the good and the bad. It is not my intention to upset you but look at your first comment today and tell me honestly who is winding up who?

Morning All. Just to add fuel to the fire…What people seem to forget is that La Liga is pretty similar to the SPL in so much as there isn’t any real competition. There is 2 teams with stacks of cash who nearly always buy 1st and 2nd, then theres 2 or 3 teams who do ok-ish and then every1 else is shite. For Cesc to give up on being captain of one of the best sides in the best league in the world to play in half a dozen or so meaningful games a year doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know how I’d feel because it hasn’t happened and we’d have to look at it in hindsight at how they got on in their careers – if they were the next Fran Jeffers and Tom Huddlestone I don’t see myself being too bothered. Its all relative.

How do Newell Old Boys feel about losing Messi and so on it goes, its football.

I’m sure I will be shot down as being a doom and gloomer but it is starting to look like Cesc will be on his way. His lack of comment and now his dad chipping in looks like the rumours are true. However £60m+ would have to be good business. I can see the board being quite happy if it drags out so they have got an excuse not to spend the proceeds though !

Andy, it is beginning to feel more likely – but I don’t agree with the second half of your argument (that the board will drag it out to bank the cash). They are not stupid. They know the financial health of the club relies on success on the pitch now that the worst of the stadium debt has been dealt with.
If Fab goes for £60m I would expect some very serious in-coming signings.

What can Cesc say now, unless he really does not want to go. If he wants to stay, it’s easy – he just comes out and uses the usual form of words about wanting to go to Barca “one day”.
But if he is on the fence or definitely wants out, he can’t say anything without publicly weakening Arsenal’s bargaining position. He’s already said he wouldn’t move anywhere except Barca, which doesn’t exactly strengthen our hand. Where we do have bargaining power is over the ‘when': if he’s going this year, Barca will have to pay a LOT of money. Or there could be a deal where he goes next year for an agreed (but slightly lower) fee.

Hi im a barca fan and no im not here to insult you guys and your frustrations are understandable and respected. This seems like a decent community though but as a fan i must say im dissapointed with what you’ve done with our crest up there.

Crests is a spiritual symbols of every club and if your looking for some descent and logical barca fans to contribute on this blog then let me just say your sending out the wrong message.

Flyzowee – I think the word superimposed onto your club crest was intended to poke fun at the am pictured, he(Hleb) said as one of the reasons he wanted to leave us was that London was too busy and big a city for him but went to Barcelona, another big, busy city.
It’s his hypocrisy that has caused us to call him a “cock.”
Having said that your respectful attitude is duly welcomed and applauded.

ok i understand now but not everyone’s gonna have the patience to ask so expect more of my opposites

we do not play with two defensive midfielders.
Just so i know the part where it says we play negative football, i mean should i take that seriously and debate it or brush that off as a joke too?

If fob does come i dont think it wud be for 80mill.
The barca board just wont have it.
If he wasnt a youth product chances of that cud have been higher but provided your transfer guys dont buckle under the pressure especially since his dads now talking then he should still be an arsenal player come next season.

ok i understand now but not everyone’s gonna have the patience to ask so expect more of my opposites

we do not play with two defensive midfielders.
Just so i know, the part where it says we play negative football, i mean should i take that seriously and debate it or brush that off as a joke too?

If fab does come i dont think it wud be for 80mill.
The barca board just wont have it.
If he wasnt a youth product chances of that cud have been higher but provided your transfer guys dont buckle under the pressure especially since his dads now talking then he should still be an arsenal player come next season.

Flyzowee – Honestly as well ye don’t actually need Cesc. There is nothing wrong with Barca’s midfield – ye have your holding players and creative players so I think Barca are after Cesc for all the wrong reasons – i.e. as a presidential pawn.

Fair points largely Flyzowee, but the perception here is that Cesc’s dad’s words have implied that he is more likely to be off to Barca now than staying with us? If his dad thinks he’s more likely to stay then obviously we’d be happier – I don’t subscribe to the view that if he’s forced to stay one more season he won’t be trying very hard.
BVTW – our “transfer guys” aren’t that good, they let you have TH14 for only £16m.

The post is written by a Real fan and not a regular on this site. It allows us an alternative viewpoint. I do not know if he even supports The Arsenal.

The Sun is quoting €80m, and nothing written in that scurrilous rag is to be believed, though I would be disappointed if AFC sold Cesc for the purported €30m. Barca owe us for the bargain basement deal they got on TH14 – €16m for a 29 y.o. (the same age as David Villa) was cheap as chips.

RockyL – I don’t see any problem calling Hleb a “cock” he disrespected our club with his ice-cream meetings and moaning and whining and now that it hasn’t worked out for him, he’s trying to claw his way back in – but with Nasri, Arshavin and Rosicky here I think he knows the answer.

when it gets a bit heated on here, you know me, i like to take the sting out of things, and introduce a bit of light hearted banter, far better than being aggresive, don’t you think ;)

The biggest bank in Northernn Spain, (can’t remember the name) funded the Ronaldo deal and are offering depositors 5% at the moment, which to me shows they need money, as the deposit rate is too big.I don’t know if they are barcelona’s bankers but it would be interesting to find out.

To say we dont need cesc would be very accurate if only Xavi and iniesta and messi stayed fit and firing for 50 games a season which just wont happen.
I think you underate your captain.
Its not good enough having a world class starting eleven, you gotta get similar quality on the bench.
No im not sayin Fabs gonna be a bench player at barca.
To refer to the national team as evidence is too easy, id say hed give iniesta a good run for his money.
Iniesta usually gets the spot cos of his understanding with xavi. That more than anything else is why your captain isnt first choice.
Quality wise there is no difference.
If keita can get a look in then surely fab can to.

Would i also be wrong to suggest that fab was a lil bit impatient with barca when he was a kid?
I mean how many 16 yr olds get first team opportunities in europe?
Iniesta didnt break through till he was around twenty, the same thing with pedro (21).

Flyzowee – I really don’t think we underrate Cesc at all but he is used to being the first name on our starting XI, is he really guaranteed a starting spot though if all are fit or will the formation be changed slightly?

Looks like another hispanic is angling for an exit route, Vela says : “having a good World Cup can open many doors, if not at Arsenal, we’ll see where”.
In this situation I’d be happy for Carlos to leave, in my mind he’s been a bitter disappointment this season.

Barcelona owe money to various European clubs Lyon,Arsenal,Inter,… they are most likely part of transfer agreement (mostly transfers aren’t paid in full immediately but in parts over longer period of time)

Balague is an Espanyol-fan and Benitez-idolizer so take his Barcelona/liverpool-related material with a pint of salt.

I can see alot of things, but it doesn’t mean I’ll agre with them. Like buying Ibra for so much money. But I actually think he was kind of OK for us. Just not great and he was “somewhat overpriced”.

Because you make a mistake once, like buying a very expensive washing mashine for 1 million doesn’t mean your new refrigerator should cost 1,5 million. IF you see what I mean. But agreeing on transferprices between two sets of fans is extremely difficult. I find 50 mill Euro’s as too much, you’ll want upwards of 60….

I actually don’t think ANY player is worth the money paid for them in general. Last summer we got £25mil for Adebayor which is just laughable but there are artificial inflated prices now for top players – Ronaldo, Kaka, Imbrahimovich (I’d debate that but anyways) and Cesc is among those.

The way we Gunners see it is that if we can get £25mil for Adebayor, Aston Villa can look for £30mil for Milner, United can get £80mil for Ronaldo then why can’t we get £60mil for Cesc who has yet to reach his peak and is one of the most sought after playmakers in the game?

I loved this. I thought Barca showed no class disrespecting Arsenal with constant hassling and raised that issue with a few Barca supporters on some blogs. It used to shut them up pretty fast. Cesc Fabregas himself criticized Barca this season for constant false story telling about his transfer and said they show lack of respect for him and Arsenal. There you go, Barca lovers.

I know we can’t really do it cos it wouldn’t benefit neither us or the player but wouldn’t you just love for once to feck them into the reserves for a year and say “your under contract screw you” – the player power has perhaps got too much lately. Might as well do away with contracts altogether.

I have tried not to write about will he or won’t he— it drives me nuts.

BUT…..

What really gets my goat is that Arsenal are not coming out all guns blazing and saying “F. Off. Our Captain has signed a contract and a very lucrative one at that. He stays whether he is happy or not”

At least that old fool Hill Wood made some attempt to be rigid.

I realise an unhappy player is not ideal, but I would strip him of the Captaincy, make RvP or TV captain, and in necessary put Cesc in the stiffs. Sod player power.

Cesc seems a decent bloke, and he has always respected the shirt and the people who pay his ludicrous wages, but making a pledge by signing a contract means commitment. It shouldn’t be just one way.

That said, we have no conclusive evidence that Cesc is angling for a move.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of the ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replased with the ‘f’. This will make words like ‘fotograf’ 20% shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double leters which have always been a deterent to akurate speling. Also al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer peopl will be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to oza kombinations of letas.

While it’s nice to imagine player power being reined in by sticking the recalcitrant player in the stiffs to see out the remainder of their contract, only the toughest and most uncompromising of managers could do that – perhaps Cloughie in his pomp would have done that. However Wenger has in the past proved very quick to sell if a player wants to go – he nearly always says that if a player wants to go it’s very difficult to stop him.

I’d stick ‘em into reserves cos I’m a bitch like that – but then of course when your offered £25mil (in the case of barndoor) for a player that doesn’t want to stay anyway its kind of hard to turn down.

50 million is just somewhere in the middle of all figures floating around, no exact idea here nor inside info. Just a gues, might as well be 10 or 90 million.

Your valuation based on I must say sensible arguments has its merits. But I believe crazy fee’s in every sense have been payed before and for me personally I wouldn’t go over 35-40 million euro’s because I believe first of all doesn’t need him, secondly he might deter J.Dos Santos and Thiago not to extend their contract and thirdly if we pay more than 40 I believe we better go for cheaper alternative (be it of lesser quality, ex. Affelay, Gourcuff,…) keeping our financial sanity in mind.

Its obvious though that Barca would have no current interest in Cesc if he wasn’t Spanish and their youth product cos Barca honestly don’t need him at this time – certainly not what its going to cost them to get him.

Barca or Madrid that’s like asking if you’d rather be shot to death by pistol or rifle !! They are both classless clubs that think they can ride roughshod over any other club I for one hope we stand firm and Arsene faxes Them a photo of a rather large pair of hairy bollocks and an offer of £2.20 and a copy of viz in exchange for messi,

If we cave in on this one everytime from now on if they fancy taking one of our players they will just repeat this shit untill we give in again, We need a Rorkes Drift mentality on this one!

Has it crossed anyone else’s mind that the reason Arsenal have not denied this latest batch of Cesc rumours may be because it down right suits them. If their PR department read blogs they would report back that the supporters are acting like a bunch of ungrateful children and that they should be made to wait for the announcement that Cesc is going nowhere for the purpose of making them more appreciative of what they have got. That’s what I would do anyway.

The other thing that struck me that doesn’t ring true is this idea that all of a sudden Barcelona don’t have any money. What a crock, if it quacks like a duck it’s a duck and that is a negotiating ploy.

London,
Not a hope in hell the club don’t give a monkeys to what we think :)

He will go if Barca match the figure Arsenal want whether they can match that I’d have serious doubts if they do tho it won’t be announced till after the season ticket renewals are all in , Me cynical never ;)

The last time I watched Argentina play I couldn’t believe how such a collection of fantastic players could play so badly. In the formation that Maradonna put out he even managed to make Messi look poor. They were playing Uruguay though, South American football at its worst, it was like 22 Eboues rolling around on a bad day.

Holland, that would be a surprise. Spain leapt to my head when I read that question I thought they play like Barcelona then I thought who play like Inter and I realised that we rule Italy out at our peril.

I will do Raddy :) I told him to come on but he was scared. To quote ” all the writers seem pretty smart there, I find it hard to say anything, I have been reading it for a long time now, but couldn’t find anything smart to say.”

Rocky,
There’s always one ;) Agree with Those that would like to see Holland win it lovely people and country and adore their football as we do, We went out to Germany for the first two weeks in a camper for the last world cup and stopped in the dam for a couple of days on the way home,
Holland had a game the whole place was
orange and the locals couldn’t have been more
friendly with us and pretty much to a person that we spoke to wanted us to win it if they didn’t!!

ARSENAL: A CLUB THAT USED TO HAVE AMBITION
No wonder Cesc Fabregas wants to leave if this is Arsenal’s three-years-overdue response to their biggest problem:

‘Arsene Wenger is ready to turn to Fulham veteran Mark Schwarzer to solve his goalkeeper crisis.’

No disrespect to Schwarzer, because he’s a decent keeper. But he’s 37. And not exactly renowned for being top class, let alone world class. Moreover, according to The Daily Mirror, ‘Arsenal have also looked at AZ Alkmaar’s Sergio Romero and Shakhtar Donetsk keeper Andriy Pyatov but Wenger would rather stick with his current crop of keepers than pay over the odds for a new first choice.’

Yup. They’re still trying to do it on the cheap. Or the free.

These comments are from Goal 365.

Whats that I here you say? Goal 365 is crap? The press have it in for The Arsenal, always have?

Its time for Arsene Wenger to stop the rot. Arsenel Shares are traded coz they are a good investment, not coz The Club is bolstering its trophy cabinet. It would appear that that is secondary these daze.

Now I spose I’ll be accused of being anti Arsenal or a gloomer & doomer. Anti Wenger, whatever, but one thing is I don’t live in dreamland. Its obvious also that finishing top 4 is enough to satisfy The Board. Maybe its isn’t Wenger who won’t spend, maybe he is just too old to make a move & start again so he puts up with a penny pinching Board. If thats the case then Arsenal Football Club may slip further into the trophyless mire, before things get better?

Morning Peaches; Its amazing really the way that rumour, given that we all know what our papers are like, can generate such feeling,
G9 it may not happen and untill it does it is dreamland, these blogs are about our dreams and nightmares but they aint on the whole factual.

Can I say this. I’m worried about the immediate future of The Club, coz if Cesc goes, top 4 becomes really hard against big spending clubs. All I want is a proper tweek, & all The Club does is dilly dally over a few pennies.

G9, that is the point we don’t know if they do dilly dally or indeed what is in the pipeline, it is fun to speculate, but not worth getting uptight over, what will be, will be and then we can evaluate where we are. Top of the league with a bright shiny new GK I hope

If Cesc goes, then what will be will be bad coz Le Gaffer :oops: The Board won’t fork out the readies to replace him. Thats not speculation, thats a theory based on 4 years of penny pinching by The Arsenal.

One can’t play for one club and want to play for another and keep your integrity intact. Either Cesc is an Arsenal player or he is not. Maybe he like RVP last season thought we would strengthen with more experienced players, but to me anyway it is fairly obvious that we didn’t,until now have the funds.I am sure Wenger is more frustrated than the really negative posters one sees on various different sites.Maybe Wenger was covering up for the BOD, and maybe he is stubborn, but he has done a wonderful job just to keep us year in and year out in in the top 4.Regardless of the losses against United and Chelsea this season, we were still in with a realistic shout for the title when we lost 3 of our most influential players more or less at the same time.Gallas,Vermaelen and Cesc.I am uncertain as to how next season will pan out, with a possible takeover,Merida having left, Silvestre and Senderos and most probably Gallas all leaving, so for the first time for many a year our whole squad could be dramatically changed.Most of us know the key areas that are our weakness, so by this time next year we will know a lot more.It is very easy to be pessimistic all the time.I am no oracle, but I am willing to debate, but that generally is not possible on so many sites, so at least on here we can have a sensible debate if one is pro Wenger or not. After all, ours are only opinions, as we have a passion for our club.

Cesc is a Mataro, Barcelona, and Arsenal product. Claiming he is only an Arsenal product, or only a Barcelona product, is ridiculous. They all had a part in developing Cesc.
Barcelona has developed Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan, Busquets, Pedro, Messi, Valdes. Puyol was 17 when he joined Barca’s youth team, not 19. Pique joined the youth at 10, left at 17 and came back at 21. All of these players receive regular playing time with Barca. Another youth product, Jeffren, is on the first team but does not receive regular minutes. Barcelona never claimed to be a club that never spends. They are a club who looks to the youth team first, then spends the money when necessary. Arsenal has only one youth product receiving regular minutes, Cesc. I don’t blame Arsenal though, if you look at England as a whole, they can’t seem to develop good footballers. Also, Arsenal has developed Wilshere, finally a midfielder with great technical ability.
Barcelona isn’t saying, “Hey look at me, I have Unicef across my chest, look at me! I do great things for unfortunate people and want credit for it!” They are helping Unicef promote their cause by wearing it across their chest. If you are as widely recognized as Barca, and can help promote highly worthy causes by wearing a logo on your chest, why not? Tell me, what’s wrong with that?
Do you realize the irony in blasting Barcelona for spending money, then praise Arsene for finally deciding to spend money?
Rolling the ball back then booting it to the forwards? Did you see the Champions League games these two teams played? It is widely know that both Arsenal and Barca play similar styles, which is quick short passes, 1 2’s, and excellent movement. You’ve obviously never seen Barcelona play, or Arsenal for that matter. The difference is that Barca has an idea of what to do when they don’t have the ball, Arsenal does not. This was all too apparent during that CL QF.
Also, I here many people pointing to Barca’s debt. Most clubs have debt. The difference is the ability to pay off the debt. Barca has solid revenue streams, which explains why recently a consortium of banks loaned Barca about 135 million even though they are in debt. This is the difference between Barca, Mallorca, and Portsmouth, it’s the revenue stream. That’s why Man U and Liverpool, amidst the debt are able to still operate without going into administration. They have solid revenue streams.

I know a good player join a winning team and a winning team wants a good player. if i’m Cesc fabregas i will sign for Barcelona to win a more trophies including Uefa champion leagues.
Arsenal is not a winning team is a developing team, or a player into star.